Director Morgan Neville on filming Lorne Michaels for new doc: ‘It was like making a nature documentary’
Lorne Michaels stars in director Morgan Neville’s documentary ‘Lorne.’ (Focus Features)
For decades, Lorne Michaels has made America laugh as the man behind the scenes of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. But for the most part he’s remained just that, behind the scenes.
The new documentary Lorne aims to change that, although its director, Morgan Neville, tells ABC Audio Michaels didn’t make it easy.
“I mean, the first day of shooting is literally what you see in the documentary, which is the cameras come out of the bags and Lorne vanishes,” Neville says. “Slowly, we got closer and closer. It was like making a nature documentary, and he kind of became a little more used to it.”
But while Michaels didn’t like talking about himself, plenty of people had no problem talking about him, with Michaels’ famous friends and colleagues, like Paul Simon, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, John Mulaney, Adam Sandler and more, contributing to the film.
“People do love to talk about Lorne, because for all of them, he looms large in their own stories,” says Neville. “You know, for a lot of them, he’s the reason they became famous or successful.”
The film also takes viewers inside the making of SNL, with cameras filming parts of the process most regular folks never get to witness.
Neville says the SNL footage was important because the film’s “not just Lorne’s backstory, but the dynamics he’s created and really the culture,” noting he wanted to capture that “while it still exists.”
And while moviegoers will indeed learn a lot about Michaels, they may still come away thinking he’s a bit of a mystery, and Neville’s OK with that.
“You know, Lorne is the Wizard of Oz, and on the one hand you want to learn about the Wizard of Oz,” he says, “but you also don’t want to demystify him to the point where he’s not the wizard anymore.”
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Justin Baldoni speaks onstage at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards, Dec. 9, 2024, in New York. Blake Lively attends ‘Another Simple Favor’ New York Screening, April 27, 2025, in New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images | Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Animosity on the set of the film It Ends With Us was evident well before highly publicized lawsuits between stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were filed, newly unsealed text messages show.
The messages, which are among the hundreds of documents the judge overseeing the civil claims ordered unsealed ahead of a hearing this week, show Lively and Baldoni venting to friends and colleagues during filming.
In a May 2023 text exchange between Lively and a journalist, Lively expresses her frustration with filming and says she “came home and cried” on one occasion. The actress also writes, “They’re just being creeps,” when referring to her co-star.
Texts between Baldoni and another actor show he was equally frustrated while making the movie. Baldoni, who also served as the film’s director, said in one message that Lively was threatening not to promote the movie if she was not allowed to take part in the edit.
In one message, he wrote, “She had the nuclear bomb. If she doesn’t promote the movie she can leak that I’m a bad person or that she felt unsafe with me and ‘all the stuff’ she has on me. Then she’s the victim.”
In a later text message, he wrote, “The risk to my family isn’t worth the creative integrity.”
Other unsealed documents include a text exchange between Lively and fellow actress Jenny Slate, who also appeared in the film.
Referring to Baldoni, Lively wrote, “I also saw something in him, was aware of a general vibe that I’m not into, and I pushed past it. Never again! Lesson learned.”
ABC News has reached out to Slate’s representative for comment.
Lively first filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us and accusing both Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios of engaging in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation.
The two filed dueling lawsuits against each other in New York in the weeks that followed, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and further accusing Baldoni of retaliation, suing him for nearly $500 million in damages. Baldoni’s lawyer denied the allegations, stating at the time that they had “evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie” by Lively.
Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane, and Sloane’s public relations company Vision PR alleging extortion and defamation, claiming Lively had “robbed” him of control over the film and had destroyed his reputation.
Lively’s lawyers denied the allegations and called Baldoni’s suit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” they said in a statement at the time.
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni’s suit in June of last year, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint. Attorney Byran Freedman said at the time, “Our clients chose not to amend their complaint to preserve appeal rights. In the meantime, we are focusing on Ms. Lively’s claims. We remain fully committed to pursuing the truth through every legal and factual avenue available and look forward to our day in court.”
Lively’s suit against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios is ongoing.
This week’s documents were unsealed ahead of a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 22. The trial is set to begin May 18.
A member of Lively’s legal team responded to the newly unsealed documents in a statement to ABC News, writing, “In his TedTalk to promote his brand as an advocate for women, Justin Baldoni said we must ‘listen to the women’…even if what they are saying is against you.’ See how he actually reacts in the bombshell new evidence released for the first time, which includes sworn testimony and contemporaneous messages from numerous women who actually worked with him.”
The statement continued, “The newly unsealed evidence contains never-before seen testimony, messages, and evidence from numerous eyewitnesses backing the claims in Ms. Lively’s lawsuit. The evidence includes Ms. Lively’s own testimony describing the harassment she faced, as well as new evidence from numerous women describing their own disturbing experiences.”
ABC News has reached out to Baldoni’s representatives for comment.
Jane Wickline, Harry Styles and Chloe Fineman during ‘SNL’ promos. (Rosalind O’Connor/NBC)
In a new series of promos for his upcoming Saturday Night Live stint as host and musical guest, Harry Styles is bullied into leaving Studio 8H by cast members Chloe Fineman and Jane Wickline.
When Harry announces he’s the host and musical guest for Saturday’s episode, Jane says, “I’m sorry, that’s too much.” “Much too much,” agrees Chloe.
“What’s too much?” asks Harry. “You’re doing all this stuff. Let’s just calm down,” Jane says.
“It’s what I signed up for,” he argues. “K, well maybe just sign up for a chill pill,” Chloe says.
“Or a calm-down vitamin, I dunno,” Janes chimes in. “Just stop it.”
“Alright, fine. I could leave,” says a dejected Harry.
Harry walks offstage as Chloe, referring to Harry, says, “A lot. A lot. A lot. A lot.”
Jane agrees, “I’ve never liked him.”
In another promo, Harry claims he’s a “bit off” because he’s “pretty nervous standing next to Jane.”
“Harry, you promised you wouldn’t catch feelings,” says Jane, who is gay.
“Sorry, is there something going on between you two?” Chloe asks.
“There always has been,” Harry confirms. “The original title of my album Fine Line was Fine Wickline.”
Saturday will mark Harry’s second time hosting and performing on the show; he last did it in 2019. He also appeared as the musical guest as a solo artist in 2017 and three previous times with One Direction.
